Finally
by katecastle87
Summary: Kate Beckett wakes up with a hangover and a strange text from Lanie. Just what exactly did she do last night? Caskett.


When Kate woke up that morning, she knew immediately that it was not going to be a good day. Her eyelashes were glued to her cheeks with sleep, her mouth felt like she'd stuffed cotton balls in it, and it tasted like bad tequila. When she finally wrenched her eyes open and lifted her head from the pillow, she took note of the pounding in the back of her head. She flopped back into bed and covered her face with her hands, groaning in pain. _Oh God_, she thought, _how much did I drink last night?_

Kate Beckett was a practical person. A workaholic. She did not go out and get drunk. She barely even went out anymore. But last week, when she and Castle had finally caught the man behind her mother's murder, she'd taken a few days off work to sort herself out. At the beginning of the week, this included a lot of crying and time spent alone. Mid-week, she'd come out of her shell and decided to call Castle to come over. They'd talked about each detail of the case, and Castle helped her put the whole situation in perspective. She'd needed him for that. And when he'd left, she had hinted that it wouldn't be too much longer before she was ready to take that last leap with him. They'd closed her mother's case – and he was still there, waiting as patiently as ever. She didn't intend to make him wait much longer. Just until she was back at work and most things were settled and back to normal. Today was the day. She was going back to work. And to celebrate her return, Lanie had shown up at her place last night with a bottle of tequila and some limes. They were going to do just one shot – as a symbol of her freedom from her burden, as Lanie had put it. But the tequila had gone down a little too smoothly, and warmed her insides, and they hadn't stopped at one.

Kate vaguely remembered that Lanie had not had nearly as much as she had. In fact, Kate was pretty sure that Lanie had left before midnight. Kate rarely drank alone. A glass of wine here and there, but she always stopped at one. But last night, with the burden lifted, she knew that there was no more reason to fear that she'd become like her father. And she'd let go. Just for one night.

In the morning light, with her mouth dry and her head pounding out her heartbeat, she recognized that her body was not used to assimilating so much alcohol and that she probably wouldn't drink quite that much ever again. Unfortunately, those thoughts didn't exactly help her that much right now. Kate huffed out another sigh and decided to get up, even though she knew it was still early. _Coffee and water_, she thought, _that's what I need._ Just then, her phone pinged, signaling a text message. She picked it up, glancing at the time before opening the message. _7:00, _Kate thought. _Good. Lots of time to get ready, and try to get rid of this headache. _

The message was from Lanie, and when Kate saw it, she frowned in confusion. The message read:

Girl, thank you SO much! You made my night ;) This day is going down in the history books!

_What is she talking about? _Kate wondered. She went over the events of last night in her mind. Lanie had arrived with the tequila around 8 pm. After the first shot, they'd talked about the case for the better part of two hours. After that, Kate had had a couple more shots, while Lanie had had only one more. Their discussion had moved to Lanie and Javier's relationship, with some light hinting about Castle, which had made Kate roll her eyes. She loved Lanie, but Castle deserved to know about any changes in their relationship before Lanie. So, much as Kate wanted to spill the beans about her decision to dive into things with Castle, she had bitten her tongue and kept quiet. After all, if things went according to plan, she and Castle would be together within the week. And Lanie could find out once they'd discussed everything that needed to be addressed.

Kate remembered Lanie leaving her place at around 11:45 pm, after which she had downed a couple more shots of tequila. After that, her memory was a bit spotty. She didn't really remember going to bed. There was a vague recollection of drinking some orange juice from the bottle, dancing to a Rihanna song (embarrassing) and, for some reason, sweeping the floor and cleaning her bathtub. It reminded Kate a little of her wilder college years. She had a tendency to clean when she was drunk. There was no recollection of saying or doing anything that made Lanie's text more comprehensible. Kate shrugged her shoulders, and decided to head to the morgue first thing. Lanie had been on-call last night – maybe someone famous had been murdered.

Forty-five minutes later, Kate was heading out the door, keys in one hand, travel mug in the other. The traffic was slow, so when she finally arrived at the morgue, she only had about half an hour to spend with Lanie before she needed to get to the precinct. As Kate opened the doors to the morgue, she realized that the coffee and the litre of water she'd had for breakfast must have helped. Other than a slight feeling of disorientation, her hangover seemed to be gone.

"Hi, Lanie!" Kate smiled. Perhaps the day would be a good one after all. Lanie looked up from her work immediately and grinned widely.

"Hey, girl!" Lanie's eyes sparkled with mirth and delight at the arrival of her friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Actually, I'm not too bad." Kate replied. "Had a headache this morning, but it seems to be gone already."

"That's fantastic Kate!" Lanie was almost jumping up and down with excitement at this point, which made Kate narrow her eyes in confusion. "Wouldn't want to be dealing with a hangover on a day like this, now would you?"

"Lanie, what are you talking about?" Kate asked, now even more bewildered. "Did someone famous get murdered last night?"

"What?" Lanie replied, and stopped bouncing. "Kate, don't you remember what happened last night?" Lanie's question caused a furry of panic to swirl in Kate's chest.

"Ummm…no?" Kate answered, frowning. "What do you mean, Lanie?" she asked in her no-nonsense voice. Now was not the time for games. Lanie's eyes widened in surprise, and then she smiled indulgently at her friend.

"You seriously don't remember?" Lanie asked gently.

"Remember WHAT?" Kate ground out between her teeth.

"Who, whoa, honey, calm down." Lanie said. "Nothing to worry about. You just texted me a last night."

"Oh." Kate said, and sighed in relief, releasing her tense stance and climbing onto an empty examination table. Her relief lasted about four seconds, because when she looked up, Lanie was giggling silently and trying to hide it by coughing unconvincingly. "Lanie…" Kate said threateningly. Lanie started laughing out loud, clutching her side with one hand and supporting herself with the other on the exam table.

"Ok, ok girl." Lanie gasped in between bouts of laughter. "Just check your phone." Kate pulled her phone out immediately and opened her text message history. With one glance, she realized that she had indeed texted Lanie last night - or rather this morning. And it didn't take more than a moment to realize that she wasn't the best drunk speller either. Kate looked up with fear in her face at her friend. Lanie's face softened when she saw Kate's expression.

"It's alright, Kate.," she said quietly. "Just read it. I'm not judging you, you know. I haven't said anything to anyone. And I won't. Unless of course, you don't follow the plan of action that you told me about." Lanie grinned at her last statement, putting Kate at ease.

"Ok." Kate said, resigning herself to being incredibly embarrassed. She took a deep breath and scanned to the beginning of last night's text.

2012-03-16 1:48 AM

dearest, derest LNsie,

hop im not awakens you up!

I juss cud NOT wait to tells you

THAt im in LOVE lovey, love, love.

L_O-VE! and Im gonna tell him tomrrw.

oh yes he will be ssssssoooooooooooooo

happy! I'M so happy. IM in love

with Rikard Caslte. oops. RRRichard Castle.

as son=oon, soon as I see him tomrrw

Im gonna just walk righ yup to him and kiss him.

oh god, that kiss frm ls year stil makes me tingle

ah, his lips,,,,,his hands,,,,his butt. oh. my. Gawd.

I cant wait to dooo it again. and again. and sooo

ooooooooooo much mre~~~! Lanie I juss love him

so much.

_Oh God, _Kate thought. _Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God. _It became a chant in head. She put her phone beside her on the table and covered her face with her hands. "Oh, no." Kate said aloud. This was not supposed to happen like this. She'd had it all planned out meticulously, so as to avoid embarrassing herself. _Well, that plan it shot_, Kate sighed.

"Oh YES!" Lanie exclaimed happily, prancing around the table to Kate, bouncing delightedly with Kate's hands in hers. "You're in love with Richard Castle!" Lanie sang loudly, shaking Kate's shoulders vigorously in her excitement. "And you're gonna tell him TODAY!" she shrieked.


End file.
